Monday, October 05, 2015

Why am I so snarky/belligerent about UFOs/Roswell?

I’m a UFO buff, and have been since my youth. The topic and
alleged phenomenon fascinates me to this day.

But I’m amidst media people and psychologists because of my
MediaWatch activity and training.

(You will see some of those associations at my various
Facebook pages,)

While I attack “ufology” and Roswell discussions elsewhere,
that stems from the intellectual environment in which I’m immersed, and many of
my views come from the ambiance I adopt from our UFO web-site(s).

Media people think UFOs goofy and people who are absorbed in
them a bit off-kilter, me among them.

My psychology friends (and neurology associates of my son
Josh, who often inhabit our lake places) weigh in with views that indicate they
think UFO aficionados have mental problems of many kinds; they don’t think
highly of UFO oriented persons.)

This causes me to reflect as I do on the state of ufology
and UFOs as I do.

Anyone who steps back and looks at UFO discussions at blogs
and web-sites has to see a perverse use of intelligence and logic, as the late
Richard Hall had it while active in the UFO community.

So, while this blog attracts a silent majority (evidence by
the “hits” it gets daily), the people who skirt commentary here and load it
upon such places at Kevin Randle’s blog, as a form of catharsis, are happy in
their ignorance and I should ignore them, but can’t.

Such stupidity is grist for my observations about the
mentality of the great unwashed, the body politic, and UFO buffs in particular.

My nature is critical, and I apologize to those who hate my
egotistical, elitist stance here.

7 Comments:

Kevin brings up topics for followers to discuss or debate. He brings up Roswell quite often, maybe too often. This is because it is his favourite case (I am pretty sure) and he knows it will always attract a lot of comments. Maybe you have noticed that other topics on his blog attract far fewer comments.

But other bloggers have their own favourite cases and could, if they so wished, also attract a large contingent of comments. You have had a go yourself with Socorro.

It is easy to attack UFO devotees, some of whom are desperate for the 'great revelation' that alas never comes. It is these people who are so infatuated with Roswell. If I myself indulge too much it is only because I suffer from an over-zealous 'anti-Roswell syndrome', which means that I tend to try and negate the pro-Roswell crowd by reasonable, rational means. And if the ETHers insist on promoting themselves and their views with absurd analogies or comparisons, I take them up on it.

Example: some people tell us that certain military secrets can, and have, been kept secret for decade after decade. Therefore, they say, the 'Roswell is ET' secret could be likewise. You will hardly ever see a reason given for why or how such a secret would, or could, be kept. But it has still been kept, period. One contributor even tells us that several countries have been in cahoots for 7 decades to keep it all top secret! That's ufology for some wise, or not-so-wise, souls.

What they won't admit is that without this vast conspiracy being postulated, their ET thesis falls flat on its face. In other words, you cannot have your 'Roswell is ET' without the accompanying conspiracy thesis. It is impossible.

So yes, you are right to avoid this endless and tiresome debate. In the end, nobody is getting anywhere, and likely never will. And established science ignores it completely. There are several other UFO cases that fall into this category, Rendlesham being one, Aztec another, maybe Kecksburg too. In fact anything where military officials 'got there' and (allegedly) carted the damn debris & bodies off in their vehicles is a prime candidate for bolstering the cover-up/conspiracy thesis. That's what it is all about. Perhaps it is all Stringfield's fault.

I can add that I am not a pro-Roswellian theist either, evidenced by my tone and silly sarcasm on a certain other blog.

I did once believe in Roswell as an ET event, not a cosmic event, just a likely ET crash of some sort.

I am now reformed and rehabilitated.

A crash did happen but it wasn't aliens.

Rather, it was the thunderous crash of viable and legitimate testimony from primary witnesses after they were found to have lied. Add to that not a shred of physical evidence. The story has no teeth.

Roswell as a location is truly the UFO capitol of the world. Centered upon it is a religious order of dedicated believers who follow their self-appointed apostles who have researched and written extensively on the topic with a pro-ET bent. Some believers claim that if you have never been to Roswell you could never understand the religion. It's as if Roswell was truly a Mecca where people must travel frequently on a pilgrimage.

While the apostles defend their faith and try to evangelize those caught in the fog of indecision, the publications they've written are akin to holy scripture for believers.They scour the texts over and over seeking to understand that which is inexplicable and mysterious.

Their collective prayers are for disclosure, for acceptance, for vindication before skeptics, and for the literal and public return of ET en mass like a second coming of sorts - a time when all mankind will embrace their creators and space brothers as devoted children.

It's a false gospel though. In fact devotees are a bit cult like in their support of each another. This is all the more reason to plug away at helping them see the error of their ways.

Brian hits the nail on the head. Roswell is a modern-day religious cult. But as Rich observes, ever tried to argue with a religious fanatic?

But it's because Roswell is a messianic type cult updated for the alienating age of the machine, against the background of the Cold War Space Race and pulp SF which shaped and forged the Roswell cult (at the level of the unconscious), that Roswell is worth a look in, but from a cultural/psychological/sociological angle ONLY. In other words, whilst Big Science continues to ignore Roswell and always will and rightly so, it is worth focusing on from the point of view of the social sciences, including Cultural Studies, psychology, sociology and folklore.

This is exactly what the book "UFO CRASH AT ROSWELL", by Ziegler, Saler and Moore focuses on. Unfortunately it has the same title as an earlier book by Randle & Schmitt, which belongs in a completely different category, as you know. I remember how Jerry Clark, just before the latter was published, was telling readers of "International UFO Reporter" how Randle & Schmitt's new book was going to shake the earth (or words to that effect). Science would finally wake up and listen. It did not, and has not for any subsequent pro-ET Roswell book either.

Holy shit, the examples of mass delusion along lines of such an exiting Hollywood inspiring subject are well known. Many UFO cases, particularly many UFO crash cases, are still in full swing and the social, psychological, historical and wank aspects of them are completely revealed in evidence to us all.It seems to me, in my humble opinion, that just like ancient-based pauedo-medicines and fucking lake monsters, the information about group/regional/global thought rising from these myths is well documented and available for understanding by anyone willing to look into the history of it. Psychics, Faith-healers, Bigfoots and Fairies, the history and human tendencies of belief and group faith, it's already well known, already well described by life-time critical investigators.I think this shows, in general, how little regard is given to serious skeptical research compared to seriously wanky feature writers.